Director Pro is the only security- and performance-monitoring switch that can filter and dynamically load balance traffic sent to monitoring appliances, enabling you to maximize the effectiveness and performance of your data center.

Director Pro reduces the complexity of managing integrated network fabric.
Every port in Director Pro is bidirectional, effectively doubling the port density.
Using the purpose built combination of deep packet inspection with static or dynamic
load balancing and policy enforcement, Director Pro provides data access to the most
complicated network at wire speed.

Director Pro improves network management reliability through reducing MTTR. It requires
little initial configuration and maintenance, and enables your organization to make better
use of its existing arsenal of monitoring appliances.

In the first three configuration modes, flows are intact, ensuring that each tool receives
complete "conversations" for analysis. Each new flow is mapped and locked to an LB output
channel based on which channel results in the most even balance.
An unlimited number of flows are supported. Load balancing can be used in conjunction with
filtering, aggregation, and other Director Pro functions.

Director Pro has multiple means of managing traffic flow using hardware and software. Load balancing can be both dynamic and static. Dynamic load balancing responds to traffic fluctuations. Static load balancing enables you to pre-configure traffic flow based on historical data or current requirements. Director Pro allows creating policies for Dynamic or Static load balancing.

Each port in Director Pro can filter traffic independently of all other ports. As traffic enters the port, it can filter packets by Ether Types, IP header information, payload and policy keywords, and forward the packets to the appropriate monitoring or security appliances. Director Pro has the highest port density in the industry; In addition, each port is bi-directional and can be used for TX and RX. Combining this capability and the high port density with load balancing and filtering results in unparalleled control of your monitoring traffic.

Dynamic Load Balancing splits the traffic into multiple streams so two or more
monitoring appliances, working in parallel, can process the data.
Dynamic load balancing policies react to the actual current system state in
making decisions to transfer loads from one appliance to another.
It prevents bottlenecks, oversubscrip- tion, and under-utilization.

Director Pro dynamically balances loads, taking the traffic from any network port or
aggregated set of network ports, and distributing it between two and thirty-two monitor ports.
Load balancing can be configured per port using the following criteria:

The source IP address

The destination IP address

A combination of the source and destination IP addresses

Packet-based round robin

In the first three configuration modes, flows are intact, ensuring that each tool
receives complete "conversations" for analysis.
Each new flow is mapped and locked to an LB output channel based on which channel
results in the most even balance. An unlimited number of flows are supported.
Load balancing can be used in conjunction with filtering, aggregation,
and other Director Pro functions.

24/7 High Performance Failover Protection

Director Pro's load balancer provides a spare port that provides monitoring and security
tools with N+1 resiliency. If one of the ports that are used for load balancing fails,
an additional port is available to support monitoring appliances.

Overflow Mode

Director Pro's load balancer can be configured for overflow-based tool allocation.
Additional tools are switched into the load balanced set only after the current tool
set exceeds a configurable utilization threshold. Overflow mode enables you to dedicate
the resources needed for the job today, with a smooth path for adding additional
resources when traffic growth demands it in the future.

Deep Packet Inspection and Filtering, Simpler than Ever

Director Pro's Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) extends the filtering capabilities of the device beyond the conventional L2-L4 header information, and depper into L5-L7 headers and the entire packet payload. Director Pro's hardware DPI engine lets you explore deep into the packet, examineing every bit of every packet at full wire speed up to 10Gbps. With this powerful DPI filtering facility, you can search for nested MPLS labels, application headers or text based content taking your security and trouble-shooting capabilities to a whole new level.

Versatile Port Mapping

Every port in Director Pro is bidirectional, effectively doubling the port density. Each port performs load balancing. In addition, Director Pro enables port-mapping and connector flexibility. Transmit and receives act independently of each other. The fact that you can receive on monitoring ports allows you to send reset commands to the network.

Cut-Through Architecture

Director Pro's dynamic load balancing and DPI hardware engine monitors packets as they
traverse the port instead of waiting until the all packets completely pass through;
this is known as cut-through architecture. Adding Director Pro to your network security
and monitoring configuration introduces latency that is measured in mere microseconds
because of this cut-through architecture.

Models

Director Pro models are available with zero or three 10-Gbps XFP ports, which can be used as network or monitor connections. You can also select:

One or two Director Network Modules (DNMs), each providing 6 in-line links or

All Director Pro models include 10 1-Gbps SFP monitoring ports for Fiber or Copper tools.
Also supplied are a dedicated 10/100/1000 Management port, a local RS-232 CLI port, and dual
redundant power supply modules.

Director Pro provides one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many mappings of network links and Span ports to monitor ports. Traffic from any selection of network links and Span ports can be aggregated into a single stream and copied to any one monitoring port. In addition, the same aggregated traffic stream can be copied to more than one monitoring port at the same time, enabling different groups to monitor the same data without conflicts.

Media Conversion

All Director Pro monitor ports use SFP or XFP modular transceivers so virtually any monitoring tool can be accommodated. In addition, DNMs are available for copper and SX and LX fiber in both in-line and Span versions, increasing the flexibility of media type support.

Director Pro enables you to mix 1-Gbps and 10-Gbps links and tools: traffic from a 10-Gbps link can be truncated, filtered or load-balanced to multiple 1-Gbps monitoring tools. Conversely, multiple 1-Gbps links can be aggregated to a 10-Gbps monitoring tool, getting value out of the tool bandwidth that might otherwise go to waste.

Daisy-Chain Expansion

Director Pro can be daisy-chained along with Director DIR-7400 and DIR-5400 units, with up to 10 chassis in a daisy-chain acting as a single logical unit (so it's easy too!) with up to 380 ports. One or two Director Pro chassis can be included on the daisy chain, in the end positions.

SR, LR, and ER 10-Gbps daisy-chain links support a reach as far as 40 km or 25 miles, enabling an entire campus or metro area to be monitored by a single logical Director Pro installation.

Dual Hot-Swappable Power Supplies

Director Pro's two modular power supplies provide fault tolerance: If one power supply
loses power, Director Pro continues operating on the remaining supply.
For maximum reliability, each supply has its own integrated cooling fan.
If a power-supply module needs replacement, there is no need to take Director
offline because the power supplies are hot-swappable.
Both universal AC and -48VDC (telco) models are available.

Easy Configuration

Packed with functionality, Director Pro is a network device that plugs and plays as easily as the rest of the Net Optics Tap products. Its command-line interface (CLI) enables any Director Pro parameters or filters to be checked or changed with a few keystrokes. The management interface is password-protected and accessed through a secure, dedicated management port. The CLI is also available through a local RS-232 serial port. Director Pro supports RADIUS and TACACS+ authentication and authorization for easy integration in enterprise networks. SNMP support and GUI management tools are coming soon.

Security and Reliability

Director Pro handles network traffic entirely in hardware, so data flowing through Director Pro's in-line links can never be hacked or compromised. Configuration variables can be changed only through the device's management port.
Director Pro maintains its configuration even when power is offline. When Director Pro is powered off, traffic flows continue between the device's in-line network ports, maximizing network uptime.